Neanderthal remains in Iraq reveal possible spear killing and earlier care

A 75,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton from Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan bears a possible fatal wooden-spear wound and evidence of an earlier facial injury survived with care, Cambridge researchers reported on October 15. Their study in Scientific Reports offers a rare view of violence and support among these ancient human relatives.

The individual, named Shanidar A, was about 45 when they died; their sex remains unknown. The remains lay beneath roughly 7.5 metres of rock and sediment. A 15-millimetre circular hole in the left shoulder blade is central to the team's reconstruction of the death.

The researchers interpret the hole's shape, bevelled edges and displaced bone fragments as evidence of a weapon passing through the chest from the front. A sharpened wooden spear fits the rounded opening better than a stone tip, they argue. The proposed trajectory would have damaged a lung and possibly major arteries, making the injury potentially lethal.

Lead author Emma Pomeroy said a hunting accident remains possible, although the wound's position and the force required suggest deliberate violence. The circumstances and any attacker's identity cannot be established. The weapon itself has not survived: the bone provides indirect evidence, rather than proof of a recovered wooden spear.

A lower incisor split lengthways tells a different story. Tartar accumulated on the damaged tooth, showing that the individual survived the earlier trauma for some time. According to Cambridge, Pomeroy estimates survival of at least a year and suggests help from companions, potentially including soft food. Such care is an interpretation of the injuries, not something directly preserved.

The study also brings the minimum number of individuals in this compact burial cluster to five. Their repeated placement in the same small space supports the authors' interpretation of intentional treatment of the dead. The findings add evidence to debates about Neanderthal social behaviour, while leaving the precise circumstances of this individual's death unresolved.